Well, after finding (and cleaning out) 2 trojans off my laptop yesterday, rescanning and finding nothing new, and such, I shut the computer down for the night thinking all was well. I either cleaned it too well, or there was more corrupted than I thought. I tried to boot, and got a black screen, and after a memory test, it says I'm missing windows\system32\winload.exe along with status 0xc000000e. I plugged in my recovery disk that I had dutifully made last May. Of course it doesn't work. Ugh. I'm running a hard disk self test right now to see if it will show anything (and maybe it won't do anything, but I feel better doing something). The self-help at microsoft talks a lot about dual boots which I don't have. I can buy a recovery disk from HP, but is there not any place where I can just d/l the right thing and get my machine running sooner than whatever amount of time it'll take for the recovery disk to arrive?

Lovely HP doesn't supply an install/recovery disk when you buy one of their computers--you have to make your own, copied from the recovery partition, or order one from HP for 10 bucks plus shipping and handling but only if you have problems. I created a recovery disk when I first got the computer. However, it didn't work. The computer can still access the recovery partition, however, so I can apparently boot from that. I just had to go to work this am, and then go get an external hard drive to back up my files. I have quite a bit more on there than my flash drives would hold. I'm just waiting for the backup to finish now. At least I won't lose everything, but it's sure a PIA to fix.

From MST3K's spoof of "Hercules Unchained"--heard as Roman medic soldiers carry off an unconscious Greek Hercules on a 1950's Army green canvas stretcher: "Hi, we're IX-I-I. Did somebody dial IX-I-I?"

That is a PIA indeed !! Maybe worth getting your hands on something like Acronis True Image to make a system backup with your laptop setup the way you like it, as opposed to the 'out of the box' backup your recovery partition gives you. I have an external drive simply for system backups of all my pcs..

more info at www.acronis.com Simply the greatest backup proggie ever, used by average users, small business and juggernaut enterprises worldwide.

Well, F11 is the magic button to re-boot from the recovery partition, which I'm glad HP loaded on the computer--it's worth the space. The backup did recover some files, but none of the stuff I really wanted, and the thing that's really annoying me at the moment is that I lost all my bookmarks and I have to transfer my music from my iPod without losing it all in the sync with iTunes (picked up Podlift again to help with that). I did learn about some interesting new programs on C-net's www.download.com and picked up some new freeware, so there's a silver lining to this dark cloud. I also have a new external hard drive that didn't cost a ton of money, so I'll be able to back up the really important things easily now. Fortunately, my email is web-based so I didn't lose that, and some of the really important files I had also copied to our desktop, so those weren't lost. My pictures I still have stored on the camera's memory card (5 Gb ftw). I lost some writing, all the savegames/game mods, bookmarks and site sign-ins, and music, but nothing critical. Darn, I'll have to replay NWN2 again to get to level 20 for the MotB expansion..... I'm tickled, however, that with a little help here and elsewhere, I didn't have to take the computer somewhere to get it fixed. I feel like a little kid who says "I did it all by myself!"

Thanks for the program recommendation, btw. I tried Ghost one time, but it used up so much resources on my old laptop I couldn't do anything and had to uninstall it.

From MST3K's spoof of "Hercules Unchained"--heard as Roman medic soldiers carry off an unconscious Greek Hercules on a 1950's Army green canvas stretcher: "Hi, we're IX-I-I. Did somebody dial IX-I-I?"

If you use something liek outlook, you can backup all your files, emails, folders and contacts as well.

There are also many backup utilities out there too backup emails, savegames, docs or your whole computer. Vista has one built in. Only Vista ultimate has the version that will allow a full system backup IIRC...(compression not as good as acronis)

Unless you really want to, dont play NWN2 again...grab yourself a trainer and get your character the way you want, ready for the XP

It is a good feeling to fix stuff yourself, especially simply due to the fact that you have saved yourself some money. When it comes to hardware, Im pretty confident I can handle anything. Armed with google, I can get to software solutions too, a bit more slowly, but surely

I dont have a tech or IT background, so if I can do it, anyone can Seriously, all you need to have to be able to build a pc from scratch is the ability to read, and lego assembly skills s'easy If I;d bought my mediacenter and gaming rigs from a retailer, Im sure I would have paid 3-4 times what I paid buying the hardware and snapping it together myself. Overpricing buggers !

I was happy replacing some RAM some time ago, thought that was a real challenge lolz.
But just recently I replaced my HDD, and now I put in a new graphics card as well, which was tricky cause it needed a power lead and such, plus being the tidy nitpicky person that I am, I couldn't resist bundling up some wires and tying them to the case...Next stop will probably be even more tricky i bet.

Point is: it feels good when you can do it yourself, just like building the desk you set your PC on with you own hands, making yourself a nice meal, etc...

Atm I back up my most important stuff to a DVD disc, but since external HDDs are dirt cheap nowadays (not to mention very stylish as well), I'll probably invest in one of those soon.

A good tip re ext HDDs is to convert a 3.5", rather than get a premade one.

You can get a 400GB drive really cheap and a nice case for the same price as you'd pay for a 120gb mini drive. I know people like the look of those WD 'book' types, but you build something very similar for much cheaper yourself.

Just a tip to those budding pc builders out there:
**Great way to start building > build a barebones unit. They come with mainboard, all wiring attached, all you need to is pop in a cpu, gfx card(if reqd), HDD and ram. The shuttle cases are a dream to work on, best cable management ive ever seen, all the cables are at the precise length they need to be, with clips and such all built in.
**Dont forget that thermal paste ! This sits between your CPU and the bottom of your CPU fan heatsink. When you buy a CPU with fan included you often have the paste pre applied to the bottom. If your careful, it should be ok. If you want to apply some yourself, wipe that off, eg, with some alcohol wipes and let it dry. Get your fave thermal paste and apply it according to manufacturers instructions, which nows is usuallyto place a small dab in the centre of the top of the CPU... I still see so many people applying the paste and tryingto spread it out like butter... The key is to get a *very* even spread, which the heat from the cpu will do naturally. No human is skilled enough to 'spread' the thickish paste that evenly. I myself use Arctic Silver 5 Moderately priced and great quality.

Great tips Astro, I was thinking about a barebones for my next rig and I think it would probably be best...I'll look into your idea for an external HDD as well.

I was gonna look into Arctic Silver as well as it seems to be everyone's favorite...
Btw, do you use the reference HSF or do you use a custom one?

The shuttle rigs come with a custom fan that is tailored to a particular case. Ive built scores of rigs with standard fans. If you buy the CPU with HSF included, you'll notice the quicker CPU you buy comes with a snazzier fan. The x2 6000 fan looks great, copper tubes and heatsink etc. It sits on my shelf atm as it isnt required in my shuttle rig

Unless someone is planning to OC, I dont see anything wong with the standard HSF and maybe a large/silent case fan in there too if you think its necessary(ie if you have a higher end gfx card in the case as well and you want to keep air circulating).

Thermal measures like water or phase cooling are really for overclockers IMO, most of whom Ive met become so focussed on getting that 4.5+ that they stop playing games almost entirely and have at least one side of the case open at most times... lolz... silly stuff

Thermal measures like water or phase cooling are really for overclockers IMO, most of whom Ive met become so focussed on getting that 4.5+ that they stop playing games almost entirely and have at least one side of the case open at most times... lolz... silly stuff

I know they've got the pwnage bechies but no time to do anything with them, more is, most of the time it won't really make any difference on your overall computing or gaming other than benchmarking lolz

Does the Shuttle come with all the necessary case fans or is there room for more if you go high-end CPU/GPU-wise?

Startaid has a FF add-on for saving bookmarks online so you can sync up your bookmarks on all your computers, as long as you don't mind someone theoretically learning about what you're bookmarking. Good way to save them too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Astrotoy7

I dont have a tech or IT background, so if I can do it, anyone can Seriously, all you need to have to be able to build a pc from scratch is the ability to read, and lego assembly skills s'easy If I;d bought my mediacenter and gaming rigs from a retailer, Im sure I would have paid 3-4 times what I paid buying the hardware and snapping it together myself. Overpricing buggers !

mtfbwya

I think the next time we have to get a new computer, instead of just upgrading which we've done recently (Ram in both older laptop and desktop, vid and sound cards in desktop), I'll give it a try. Our older laptop is on its last legs and I was thinking of building a basic computer for the kids to play on. They don't fight over which TV show to watch or game to play, they fight over who gets to use the desktop, and sometimes Jimbo and I do work from ours or some writing and then they're stuck. Since my son is getting close to the middle school point and does homework on the computer now (he and another kid in his class got 'special dispensation' from the school system to type up their homework instead of handwriting it since their penmanship is so bad and the school decided it was a fine-motor issue), it's almost going to become a necessity.

I found some cool little FF add-ons and some freeware on downloads.com that I thought might be useful for people, and I'll post those in the killer apps thread sometime in the next couple days.

From MST3K's spoof of "Hercules Unchained"--heard as Roman medic soldiers carry off an unconscious Greek Hercules on a 1950's Army green canvas stretcher: "Hi, we're IX-I-I. Did somebody dial IX-I-I?"

and yes, putting a computer together takes little or no effort aside from routing wires, but even that isn't that much of a pain. the hard part is setting up the OS and getting everything working right.

Wow we don't have a "Best of Firefox" thread in this forum yet? For shame.

says the s-mod who can mold any area to his/her liking! I'd put it under teh killer apps bit, but if you want to give such a thread a go tk, go for it !! I cant see whats stopping you !! apart from those crazy glasses

says the s-mod who can mold any area to his/her liking! I'd put it under teh killer apps bit, but if you want to give such a thread a go tk, go for it !! I cant see whats stopping you !! apart from those crazy glasses

mtfbwya

I sees you think I will be a producer and not so much a consumer of said thread. I'm flattered.